I am lucky to have an old-fashioned garden centre in my neighbourhood in Grimsby. This means that it still has summer perennials, annuals, and trees and shrubs for sale. They actually get new plants in so I can spruce up my planters.
This is in contrast to the other greenhouses - Seaway on Lakeshore has cleared the greenhouses out of summer stock and has started the Poinsettias. Sunshine's is 3/4's empty with gift pot plants, herbs, etc in the front section. Almost all the perennials disappeared just over a week ago, probably to the hoop houses for repotting. Of course the big box stores have eliminated the summer plant section. I was at Valleybrook Nurseries, the wholeale perennial growers in the spring, and there were oceans of Superstore pots going off to delivery - what a lot of plants must be sold by the Supercentres.
This is in contrast to the other greenhouses - Seaway on Lakeshore has cleared the greenhouses out of summer stock and has started the Poinsettias. Sunshine's is 3/4's empty with gift pot plants, herbs, etc in the front section. Almost all the perennials disappeared just over a week ago, probably to the hoop houses for repotting. Of course the big box stores have eliminated the summer plant section. I was at Valleybrook Nurseries, the wholeale perennial growers in the spring, and there were oceans of Superstore pots going off to delivery - what a lot of plants must be sold by the Supercentres.
Cole's has a mass show of colour out front, including a lovely garden in front of the Christmas Cottage. I took pictures on the weekend of the gardens, as they are recipients of a commercial Trillium award for 2014. I realized how big the beds are, and how many interesting plant selections there are in the beds this year. Walking along the beds brought the realization of the care and creativity that went into the designs.
Here's an extract of this history of this wonderful florist/greenhouse operation, including a picture of the original greenhouse:
Providing Fine Flowers For Over 100 Years
In 1891 Albert Edward Cole erected a 1,000 sqft greenhouse on the former sawmill property in Grimsby, and grew violets and vegetables. A.E. Cole’s three sons were involved at an early age selling vegetables and later delivering flowers by foot, horse and buggy or the street car that ran along Highway 8.
By 1930 the greenhouse was expanded to 25,000 sqft of the property! Cole’s three sons, John, Gordon and Norman, purchased the business in 1932 and more expansion followed as the floral industry grew. The children and grandchildren all worked to make it Cole’s a success!
In 1957 Norman Cole & Elizabeth became sole owners of the business and they ran the business together for 29 years. After 95 years of family ownership, Cole’s Florist was sold to Harry DeVries in 1986.
See more at: http://www.colesflorist.ca/history.php
Here we are in 2014, enjoying the wonderful gardens.
       |
No comments:
Post a Comment